The Price We've Paid

Dead Woman Walking

The next morning, you woke up with a mission. You still hadn't determined who Copley was working for; not to mention you found yourself extremely curious as to why all of the sudden you were once again dreaming of Quynh. So you decided you were going to do everything in your power to find out as much information about each of these things as you could.

After making an entire pot of coffee and filling a large cup to the brim, you headed for your office, a determination in your stride. You sat down in your chair, inhaling the scent of hazelnut and toffee before unlocking your monitors and getting to work.

You ran simultaneous searches on both Copley and Quynh, tinkering with the algorithms as you went, changing the search parameters to try and find any information you could.

Copley's search found results first.

Turns out, he was hired by a man named Steven Merrick; CEO of Merrick Enterprises. Through backtracking phone data, plane tickets, and bank transfers, you'd connected Copley to one of Merrick's hired personal guards; a man named Keane. Keane had been hired by Merrick a few years back and ever since then, any photo that you could find of Keane, Steven was within arms reach. So you figured if Copley was in touch with Keane, it probably meant he was in touch with Steven too.

Though why he wanted your team and why he had hired Copley to get them, you still had no idea. You rummaged through Merrick Enterprises website, searching for any sort of biographical information on Steven you could find. The website had a very superficial paragraph about his personal passion to make the world a healthier place; how he dreamed of ending unnecessary illness...honestly the writing made you gag a little.

Why do CEO biographies have to be so damn sappy?

Then you found something intriguing. At the bottom of the biography page, was a link to watch Steven's latest speeches. You clicked the link and it brought you to a new page filled with his most recent talks. The last one was from just a few days ago, at an investment luncheon. You pressed play and the video opened in your web browser. The lights in the room dimmed and you watched as a man, who couldn't be older than 35, stepped out onto the stage.

"At my company, our research on telomere extension has reversed the chromosomal clock of human stem cells. Dr. Kozak's manipulation of the klotho hormone will, in time, completely arrest common cognitive decline. Yes...we can all wave goodbye to dementia. Now, wait! Our work will add years of life to the collective world population. Years...decades. But it's not cheap. We need investment. Investment drives my enthusiasm to take risks. These risks improve countless lives."

You rolled your eyes, taking a sip of your coffee before closing the video bubble.

"Adding years of life to the collective world population," you repeated aloud. "It sounds like you, Steven Merrick, are trying to replicate immortality."

You smirked to yourself.

"It's not as easy as it looks...believe me, I've tried."

You set your coffee mug down and began hacking into their private database as the next video in the speech lineup played aloud. Steven's speech gave you enough information to make an educated guess as to why he wanted your team.

If he was asking for investors, there was probably already a prototype drug in place, or at least the fragment of one. Though you didn't have proof yet, you figured Merrick was most likely missing something; something that made the drug work. And now that he knew immortals existed, you were sure he probably thought that whatever was missing from that drug would be found in their DNA.

Around 1:00 in the afternoon, after running on 4 cups of coffee and a stale croissant, you finally got into their system. It took you nearly half the day just to break through the various firewalls and protections of his network. Their security was good; but you were better. And immediately, you went digging. Within minutes you'd found testing notes, genetic sample codes, lab videos, and formulas for all their major drugs.